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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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ABC 



BUTTER MAKING 



A 



Hand- Book for the Beginner. 

F. S. BUI^CH, 

Editok of TiiK Daikv AV()ki,d. 



0, 



MAY 7 !SRR 



CHICAGO : 

C. S. Rlkch Publishing Company, 
1888. 



Entered :iccordin;j^ to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by 

F. S. BURCH, 

In the Office of the I.ibnirian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 






CONTENTS. 



Page 
Milking 17 

Washing the Udder — The Slow Milker — 
The Jerky Milker— Best Time to Milk- 
Kicking Cows — Feeding during the Milking 
— Loud Talking — Milking Tubes — The 
Stool— The Pail. 

Cake of Milk 23 

Animal Heat- — Milk as an Absorbant — 
Stable Odors — Cooling — Keeping in Pantry 
or Cellar — Deep Setting — Temperature of 
the Water — To Raise Cream Quickly — When 
to Skim. 

The Milk Room 27 

To have well Ventilated — Controlling the 
Temperature — Pure Air — Management of 
Cream — Stirring the Cream — Proper Tem- 
perature at which to keep Cream — Ripen- 
ing Cream — Straining Cream — Cream in 
Winter. 

Butter Coloe ... 30 

Rich Orange Color- White butter — The 



X CONTENTS. 

Page 
Juice of Carrots — The Use of Annato — Com- 
mercial Colors — Beginners generally use too 
much. 

Chukning 32 

The Patent Lightning Churn — Churning 
too Quickly — The amount of time to prop- 
erly do the Work — Churning Cream at 60 
degrees — Winter Churning — Starting the 
Churn at a Slow Movement — The Churn 
with a Dasher — Stopping at the proper time 
— Granular Butter — Draining off the Butter- 
milk — Washing in the Churn — To have the 
Churn sufficiently Large — Churning whole 
Milk— The Best Churn for the Dairy. 

WOEKING THE BuTTEB 38 

The Right Temperature — To get the Butter- 
milk all out — Half Worked Butter — Over- 
working — Use of the Lever — Working in 
the Salt — Rule for Salting — Butter Salting 
Scales. 

Mabketing Butteb 43 

The way Four-fifths of the Farmers do it — 
The Right Way and the Wrong Way — Wait- 
ing for Better Prices — City Customers — 
Have a Commission man Judge your Butter 

Packing and Shipping 46 

The Size and Style of Package — Roll But- 



CONTENTS. XI 

Page 
ter — Packing in Earthen Jars — Tin Pack- 
ages — The Relative Cost of Wooden Pack- 
ages — Nine-pound Bale Boxes — To avoid 
"Woody Taste" — Parchment Paper — Ex- 
cluding the Air — Print Butter — Uniformity 
of Color — Top of Packages — Keeping 
Packed Butter Cold. 

Theemometebs in the Daiby 52 

Price of a Good Tested Article — The kind 
our Grandmothers' used — Floating Ther- 
mometers — Importance of their use. 

Maxims fob ABC Butteb-Makebs 54 

How TO Make Good Buttee. A chapter by Mr. 
N. Bigalow 57 




INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Frontispiece. Jersey Cow Matilda 4th. 

Milking Tube, - - - 19 

Milk Stool, ... 20 

Milk Pail, - - - ^21 

Haney Deep Setting Can, - 23 

Jersey Milk Can, - - -^24 

Shot Gun Deep Setting Can, - 25 

Cooley Can, . . - 25 

Conical Skimmer, - - 28 

Branch of Annato Tree, - • 30 

Rectangular Churn, - - 32 

Pendulum Churn, - . 33 

Bowl of Granular Butter, - 34 

Barrel Churn, - - - 36 

Danish Butter Worker, - - 38 

Eureka Butter Worker, • - 39 

Favorite Butter Worker, - - 41 

Butter Salting Scale, - - 41 

White Ash Butter Tub, - - 46 

Nine-pound Bale Boxes in Crate, - 47 

I X L Butter Printer, - - 49 

One-pound Butter Mould, - - 50 

Glass Dairy Thermometer, - 52 



PREFACE. 



I DO not claim anything new or startling for 
this little work, nor do I claim to be what 
is usually termed ''an authority" on the subject 
treated. ABC Butter Making is the 
result of my own experience in the dairy, 
together Avith an extended and careful obser- 
vation of the experiences and practices of 
some of the most successful butter-makers in 
the country, and is an answer, in a complete 
form, to the numberless questions asked me 
(as Editor of the Dairy World), by begin- 
ners in the dairy. 

The Author. 



ILKING. 



BEFOKE we can make butter we must have 
milk, and a few suggestions on this im- 
portant question will not be out of place 
here. In order that no dirt or hairs may 
find their way into the milk-pail, a careful 
dairyman will always brush off the teats and 
udder of his cow before he begins to milk, 
yet, I am sorry to say, thousands of men who 
profess to be careful dairymen do not know 
this, and are sometimes guilty of that most 
uncleanly habit of softening up the teats by 
squeezing out a little milk on their hands. A 
large number of cows are utterly ruined every 
year by improper milking ; irregular milking 
spoils a large number; noisy, loud talking 
and rough milkers help to spoil a good many 
more. The very slow milker, as well as the 
quick, jerky milker, who never strips the 
cow thoroughly, are helping to make a large 
number of our cows unprofitable. Six o'clock 
in the morning and six o'clock in the evening 
are by far the best hours to do the milkmg. 



18 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 

Some of our deep milkers should be milked 
three times a day for a week or more after 
calving. I might write a chapter on kicking 
cows, but after a wide and exceedingly costly 
experience in this line will simply say I do 
not believe in them, and would not accept the 
best one I ever saw as a gift. I am satisfied 
that it is not a good plan to feed or " slop" a 
cow during the milking, as a hungry animal 
will be too deeply absorbed in eating to " give 
down" all the milk. Better feed just before 
or immediately after milking. Keep strangers 
away from the stable during the milking 
hour ; never carry on a conversation in a loud 
voice with some person in another part of the 
stable while milking; in short, do nothing 
that will be likely to draw the attention of 
your cow, or she will in a greater or less 
degree '* hold up " a part of the milk. When 
possible a cow should always be milked by 
the same person, as the milker soon learns 
any little peculiarity of the animal, and knows 
exactly how to handle her, as well as readily 
detecting any unusual occurrence, such as 
shortage of milk, sore or caked teats, etc. 
Milk as rapidly as possible, without jerking, 
and avoid hurting the teats with sharp and 
long finger nails by keeping them well j^ared. 
Never attempt to draw the milk from a very 



MILKING. 19 

sore or inflamed teat with your liands; it 
only causes the animal great pain, and in nine 
cases out of ten you will fail to secure all of 
the milk. Milking tubes, made of silver, are 
not only great conveniences, but now that 
they can be bought so cheaply, are an absolute 
necessity, and all farmers should keep a few 
on hand for use in case of an emergency. The 
silver tubes are the best, and can be purchased 
for half a dollar each of almost any dealer in 



^ 



dairy goods. I have mailed thousands of 
them during the j^ast few years to dairymen 
in all parts of the country, and have received 
hundreds of letters stating that valuable 
cows have been saved that would otherwise 
have been ruined for milking, but for the 
use of these tubes. It might be well to say 
right here that in no case would I recommend 
the use of tubes for regular milking, as their 
constant use would soon distend the orifice of 
the teat, so that it would leak. Grease or wet 
the tubes before inserting, and be careful to 
push in slowly. If the teat is very sore the 
tubes may be allowed to remain in the teat 



20 



A B C BUTTER-MAKING. 



for a day or two, but I would advise that they 
be removed after eacli milking when possible, 
and always wiped perfectly dry. 

A good milking stool not only adds com- 
fort to the milker, but helps to facilitate the 
work to a greater degree than one would 
naturally suppose. I give an illustration of 
a handy stool, and as a novice can easily 




make one, I will simply say, make the leg ac- 
cording to the length of your own. Before 
closing this chapter on milking I want to say 
a word about the pail. Never use a wooden 
pail or vessel to milk in. The best pail I 
ever used was a patent device called the 
" Michigan Milk Bucket," and were it not for 
the expense (I believe the price is two dollars), 
they would soon come into general use. The 



MILKING. 



21 



illustration shows exactly what they are — a 
combiued pail, strainer and stool ; and as the 




■^trainer prevents any dirt or hairs from get- 
ting into the pail, and the close-fitting, cover 
precludes any possibility of the milk absorb- 
ing stable odors, I cannot say too much in 
their jiraise. When these pails were first 
placed on the market the strainer was at the 
bottom of the receiving cup, and all the dirt 
was washed into the pail, but the manufac- 
turers altered them by placing the strainer an 
inch above the bottom of the receiver, and I 
believe that they are now as near perfect a 
milk-pail as one could ask for. 



THE CARE OF MILK. 



1 SHALL not attempt to enter into the 
chemistry of the milk. It would be out of 
place in this ABC treatise. One peculiar 
thing I wish to draw your attention to is the 
" animal heat." When the milk first comes 
from the cow you cannot help noticing that 
it has a sort of feverish smell, which soon= 
passes off after exposure to the air. This 
^' cowey " smell should, of course, be allowed 
to pass off, but not in the stable, where the 
milk Avould be likely to take ou a worse and 
more lasting odor. 

Milk is a great absorbent, and quickly takes 
on any and all odors which it comes in con- 
tact with, and when once taken on, they can 
never be got rid of. Therefore, the moment 
we are through milking a cow, we should 
either take the milk out of the stable and into 
another room, or pour it at once into a can 
or some vessel with a tight-fitting cover, tliat 
it may not absorb stable odors before we are 
through with the milking of all the cows. I 



THE CARE OF MILK. 



23 



think the best plan is to strain the milk at 
once into an ordinary deep setting can and 




HANEY CAN, BACK 

VIEW. HANEY CAN. 

put the cover on tight. Remove the can, as 
soon as it is filled, to the milk -room. 

Now comes the cooling of the milk. To 
make good butter we must cool our milk 
rapidly. The sooner we cool it down to 47 
desjees after it leaves the cow the better the 
butter will be. The old-fashioned way of 
setting the milk in shallow pans or crocks in, 
the milk cupboard, which in summer was 
placed in the cellar and in the pantry in winter, 
is still kept up by a good many farmers, and 
this no doubt accounts for the steady pro- 



24 



ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 



duction of ten-cent store butter with which 
our markets are always overstocked. If you 
expect to make good butter uever set the 
milk in the pantry or cellar, as the odors 
which it will absorb there are just as numer- 
ous, if not quite so bad, as those in the cow 
stable. There is but one way, and dairymen 
are pretty generally agreed upon it, and that 

is to set the milk in 
deep cans in cold 
water, and the colder 
the water the quicker 
the separation of the 
cream from the milk. 
If you cannot afford 
to buy the patent 
deep setting cans 
like the Cooley, the 
Haney, the Jersey, 
or the Wilhelm, by 
all means get the 
common deep set- 
ting *'shot - gun " 
can, with or without 
JERSEY CAN. tho glass gaugcs in 

the sides. The purpose of all these cans is to 
cool the milk rapidly, and though the manu- 
facturers of this or that can may claim that 
their can does the work more quickly than 




THE CARE OF MILK. 25 

the others, I am of opinion that they are all 
good, and one as good as the rest. If you 
have a spring, and can set the cans in the 
ground, where the water can flow all around 
and over the cans, you will be fortunate in- 
deed. If you have no spring, and cannot 
afford a creamer, make a tank a little deeper 





" SHOT-GUN " CAN. COOLEY CAN. 



than the cans, and keep the water flowing 
around the cans. The colder the water the 
better. If the water from your well is not 
colder than 47 degrees you should use ice. 



26 



ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 



By using ice or very cold spring or well water 
you get all, or nearly all, the cream to rise in 
from twelve to twenty hours, and as I said 
before, and I want to firmly impress it upon 
your minds, the quicker you get the cream to 
rise the better butter you can make. Never 
allow the milk to set more than thirty hours, 
as it becomes acid or too thick, and loses 
much in flavor. I would much prefer to skim 
sooner, if I lost some of the cream by so 
doing, as I would more tiian make up what 
I lost in quantity by the improved quality. 




THE MILK-ROOM. 



IT would be well to say a word about the 
milk-room before passing on to the manage- 
ment of cream. Jt is absolutely necessary 
that we have a good milk-room in which to 
not only set the milk, but to ripen the cream, 
do the churning, and work the butter. 

Have the milk-room well ventilated, and 
build it so that you can control the tempera- 
ture at the proper point all the year 'round. 
A good airy place, with plenty of elbow-room 
is essential. I see too many small, ^' stuffy " 
crowded rooms, where there is scarcely a 
place for half the utensils. Now, see that 
the air in your room is always pure, and do 
not pollute it by going directly into it from 
the cow stable, with all the odors clinging to 
your clothes and manure on your boots. Also 
have the room situated as far from the barn- 
yard and hog -pen as possible. 

MANAGEMENT OF CREAM. 
Skim the milk before the cream becomes 
too thick and tough on top. I never allow 



28 ABC BUTTER-MAKING, 

the cream to remain on the milk a moment 
after I think it is all up or separated from 
the milk. If you use the deep setting cans 
you will find the little conical skimmer, with 
ten or twelve inch handle, the easiest to skim 
with. 




If you put the cream in a can, or other ves- 
sel containing cream that was skimmed some 
hours previous, be sure to stir it all well 
together, so that it may be of the same con- 
sistency. Keep the cream at a temperature 
of 62 to 68 degrees until it becomes slightly 
sour, when it is ready for churning. I have 
churned very sweet cream and very sour 
cream, but have never been able to get butter 
of good flavor from anything but slightly 
Soured cream. I am also of the opinion that 
butter made from cream only sliglitly sour 
will keep much longer than when made from 
a very sweet or sour cream. I am often asked 
if I think that straining the cream is an ad- 
vantage, and I will answer by saying that I 
do think it aids somewhat in helping the 



THE MILK-ROOM. 



29 



butter to come more evenly. In the winter 
it may be found necessary to place the cream 
near the stove, where it can be gradually 
warmed up to 68 or even 70 degrees, in order 
to have it sufficiently sour. 




BUTTER COLOR. 



w 



E all prefer to have our butter of a rich 
orange color. White butter looks too 
much like lard. Theu, too, butter of a pale 
white hue never sells for as much in the mar- 
ket as the rich colored article. Years ago 
people colored butter with the juice of carrots ; 
later on the seeds of the Annato plant were 




BRANCH OF ANNATO TREE, SHOWING BLOSSOMS 
AND SEED PODS. 



BUTTER COLOR. 



31 



crushed and the juice mixed with potash and 
water. We now have many specially pre- 
pared compounds in tlie market, put up in 
liquid form and ready for immediate use. 
Almost all of these commercial colors are 
good, but should be used sparingly. Nearly 
all the beginners use too much the first time. 
There is no general rule to follow in using 
color, and you will only be able to tell how 
much to use by practice, as the butter of some 
cows is naturally of a richer color than others ; 
this is especially true of the Jersey cows, the 
butter from which needs but little artificial 
coloring. Always put the coloring into the 
cream before beginning to churn. 




CHURNING. 



rjE W persons know how to churn properly. 
p JVo matter how rich or nice the cream, if 
the churning is not done at a proper tempera- 
ture and in a proper manner you cannot 
make good butter. Avoid the " lightning " 
patent churn, which the agent will claim to 




RECTANGULAR CHURN. 

bring butter in five minutes. Cream that 
is churned too quickly always makes butter 
of a cheesey flavor, and quick to get rancid. 



CHURNING. 



33 



Churning should never be done in less than 
twenty minutes, and, if possible, not longer 
than forty minutes. Generally the proper 
temperature at which to have the cream be- 
fore beginning to churn is 60 degrees, but 
sometimes this must be varied a few degrees, 
according to circumstances. In winter we find 
65 or 68 degrees will be necessary in order to 
have the butter come within forty minutes. 
When cows are fresh the butter comes much 
more quickly than it will after they have been 
fresh for a long period. Always start the 




PENDULUM CHURN. 

churn with a slow movement, gradually in- 
creasing until you have reached the proper 
speed, which is 40 to 50 strokes per minute. 



34 



ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 



I do not believe in the churn with a clasli in- 
side, nor do I believe in keeping the churn in 
motion a moment after the cream breaks. 
All sensible dairymen are trying to keep pace 
with the times, and have adopted the granular 




BOWL OF GRANULAR BUTTER. 

plan. This idea of scooping out great lumps 
of butter from a churn, and trying to squeeze 
and rub out the buttermilk with its caseous 
and albuminous matters is a thing of the 
past. Squeeze and press and knead all you 
please, and noticing but the water of the but- 
termilk will come out ; the very impurities 
which you desire to get out of the butter will 
be all the more firmly incorporated in it. Not 
one butter-maker in ten (no, nor fifty) knows 
enough to stop the churn at the proper time. 



CHUBNING. 35 

when the butter has formed into little pellets 
the size of a wheat kernel. When those little 
pellets have formed, pull out the plug or stop- 
per in the bottom of your churn ; if you have 
not got such a thing as a hole in your churn, 
don't Avaste a moment until you have bored 
one there, at least an inch in diameter, and 
place a small piece of very fine wire sieve on 
the inside of the churn over the hole, and 
thereafter be careful not to have your plug 
so long that it will punch the sieve off every 
time you put it in. Let the buttermilk 
drain off through this hole, after first pouring 
in a little cold water and cooling the contents 
of churn down to a point where the globules 
or kernels of butter will stick together when 
you agitate tlie churn. Now let the churn 
stand and rest a few minutes, then pour in 
more cold water, and let it drain off through 
the hole again, and if the water comes out as 
clear as it. went in, stop pouring, shake the 
churn a little, then make a good strong brine 
of well powdered salt that has been first sifted 
thoroughly, cork up the hole and pour in 
your brine, and let it stand on the butter for 
fifteen or twenty minutes, after which draw 
off as you did the water. You now have your 
butter in the best possible condition for work- 
ing. AVhen you purchase your churn be sure 



36 



A B G BUTTER-MAKING, 



and get one large enough ; it is much better 
to have it too large than not large enough. 
If you think you have not sufficient cream 




BARREL CHURN. 



for a churning and the cream is ripe, do not 
wait for another skimming, but add sufficient 
milk to have the churn filled to about one- 
fourth its capacity. Do not use milk that is 
very sour, as it is likely to contain so much 
casein that your butter will not be of good 
flavor. Many dairymen churn all the milk, 
with the cream, but as it only adds more ; 
work to the churning, I do not recommend i 



I 



CHURNING. 37 

it except in cases where there is not cream 
enough to properly fill the churn. Illustra- 
tions are given of the best churns for the 
dairy, viz., the Barrel Churn, the Rectangular 
Churn, and the Pendulum Churn. 




WORKING THE BUTTER. 



NEVER work the butter wlien it is too 
warm. I find tliat 50 degrees is about 
right. The main point in working butter is 
to get the buttermilk all out, and also to get 
it in good solid compact form. More depends 
upon proper working than one would natur- 
ally suppose. You often see butter with great 




HOME-MADE DANISH BUTTER WORKER. 

droj^s of buttermilk standing all over it ; such 
butter was only half worked, a.nd will gener- 
ally contain thirty to forty per cent, of water. 



WORKING THE BUTTER. 



39 



and will keep sweet but a very short time, 
The other extreme is overworking, and 
this produces a dry crumbly mass, with 
no flavor. If the churning is done as de- 
scribed in the foregoing chapter very little 




working is necessary, as the battermili is 
very nearly all out of the butter before iit 
leaves the churn. Take the butter out of the 
churn with your butter spade, and heap it up 



40 



ABC BUTTER-MAKING, 



on the worker. If too warm for working at 
once, throw a cloth wet in cold water over it, 
and leave to drain and cool for thirty minutes. 
Before using the lever of your worker always 
dip it in cold water. Now take the lever and 
gently press the butter out over the full sur- 
face of the worker, and sprinkle on some salt ; 
begin at the sides, and roll the butter back 




WATERS PATENT BUTTER WORKER. 

into the centre, being careful not to do any 
rubbing or you will have greaSy butter. Now 
press out the whole mass again, and give it 
another salting, and repeat the working two 
or three times until you have incorporated 
the salt throughout the whole mass evenly. 
Tlie general rule for salting is to use one 
ounce of salt to a pound of butter, but as 
some people like "salty" butter and some 
"fresh" batter, you must salt according to 
the wants of your patrons. I always use a 
fine sieve, and sift the salt over the butter on 



WORKING 5 ^:a BUTTE II 41 

the worker, just as the baker sifts his flour 
over the dough when making it. Much de- 
pends upon the quahty of the salt used in 
butter-making, and if you desire to make good 



CURTIS FAVORITE BUTTER WORKER, FOR ONE OR 
TWO COWS. 

butter use only good salt, which is put up in 
sacks, and branded '' Dairy Salt,'^ by nearly 
all the large salt makers in the country. If 



BUTTER-SALTING SCALE. 

you have a large dairy do not trust to guess- 
work, but buy a scale and use it. An illus- 
tration of a scale which is made especially for 
salting butter is given above. These scales 



42 



A B a BLTTER-MAKING. 



weigli from one-half ounce up to 250 pounds, 
and as they can be used for ordinary weigh- 
ing without regard to the butter-salting at- 
tachment, every dairyman should have one. 
They cost about six dollars. 

An illustration of a home-made butter 
worker, which is used largely by the Danes, is 
herewith given. Any man that is handy 
with tools, can make one. Cuts of three 
other good workers are shown ; they are well 
made, and cost but a small amount. 




MARKETING BUTTER. 



B" UTTER well made is half sold," says an 
old maxim ; but one would naturally sup- 
pose that it was " quite sold," to observe the 
careless manner in which four-fifths of the 
farmers market their butter. AVho has not 
observed the tactics of the country store- 
keeper in buying butter? Here comes Mrs. 
Smith, or Jones, who is known near and 
far as a good butter maker. See how anx- 
ious the merchant is to please her ; he knows 
that 1 er butter is in great demand and will 
be sold at a good price before night. He 
pays her the highest market price, and 
while weighing the neat prints of golden 
butter, carefully wrapped in spotless cloth or 
snow-white parchment paper, tells her that 
he wishes she could have brought in more. 
It's a pleasure to have the trade of such a 
woman. But now comes Mrs. Easy. Observe 
the cloudy expression on the merchant's coun- 
tenance, as he tells her that he's overstocked 
with butter; that the market is *'way down." 
You will notice that he charges her a "long 



44 A B C BUTTER-MAKING. 

price" for Avbatever he sells her, and dumps 
her butter, which is generally in mussy rolls, 
into the nearest shoe box. And who can 
blame him, knowing that he cannot sell Mrs. 
Easy's butter at home, but must ship it to the 
nearest market and sell it for "low grade 
dairy" at a price which seldom, if ever, nets 
him a profit. 

One seldom hears of the markets being 
over-stocked w^ith ''gilt edge" butter ; on the 
other hand, the market is nearly always loaded 
down with " low grades" and grease. 

The best plan for marketing butter is to 
endeavor to find customers at home, and sell 
as soon as possible. People that pack their 
butter and wait f r a rise, are sometimes dis- 
appointed, and no butter can be as good four 
or six months after it is made as when fresh. 
It is far better, as a rule, to sell as soon as 
possible, at the best price you can get, than to 
wait for a rise that sometimes fails to come. 

1 receive many letters during the year from 
people asking me to find them city customers. 
Such customers, as a rule, are very exacting; 
they expect much, and paying a high price, 
have a perfect right to do so. These private 
customers (unless acquainted with the butter 
maker) seldom prove agreeable people to deal 
with. It is better to sell for a few cents less 



MARKETING BUTTER. 45 

at home, and leave no chance for dissatisfac- 
tion, or if you cannot possibly sell all you 
make at home, better ship it to some reliable 
commission merchant, and leave him to fight 
out the battle with the customers. A good 
plan is to make up a sample pail or tub, and 
sliip to the commission merchant with a re- 
quest that he "judge" and report on it, with 
any suggestions he has to offer. Such a re- 
quest will be sure to bring you a prompt re- 
port from any good dealer. 




PACKING AND SHIPPING. 



THE size, shape and style of package for 
butter makers to use, must depend largely 
upon the demands of the market to which the 
butter is shipped, A few years ago large 
quantities of roll butter were marketed in 
Chicago during the colder months ; now you 

m a y travel from 
one end of the mar- 
ket to the other 
and not see a hun- 
dred rolls. It is 
but a short time 
ago that earthen 
crocks and jars 
were extensively 
used ; n o w y o u 
WHITE ASH BUTTER TUB scarccly Gvcr see 
them. The cause for this is, that earthen 
vessels, of any kind, are not only liable to 
break, but are also more difficult to handle 
in large quantities, and weigh much more 
than wooden packages. The great bulk of 
butter that comes to Chicago now, is packed 




PACKING AND SHIPPING. 



47 



in white ash tubs and bale boxes. Occasion- 
ally we see a tin package with wood veneer, 
but they have never come into general use for 
the reason that the acid gets under the tin 
and causes rust. Wooden packages are just 

now most popular, and 
as the manufacturers 
have reduced the cost of 
manufacturing them to 
a point where earthen- 
ware and tin cannot com- 
pete in price, we may 
look to see them in use 
for years to come. The 
ordinary white ash tubs 
can be had of every dairy 
supply dealer and nearly 
all of the general stores ; 
they may be had in 20 
lb., 25 lb., 30 lb., 40 lb. 
and 60 lb. sizes. An il- 
lustration of the nine- 
pound bale boxes in 
crate is also given. Dur- 
ing the last two years 
these bale boxes have become very popular. 
They can be shijiped in crates of six and are 
convenient to handle; they can be had for 
about twelve cents apiece. 




NINE POUND BALE 
BOXES. 



48 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 

In packing butter in wooden vessels wc 
must guard against "woody taste/' and there 
is but one way to do this, that is, to soak the 
packages from 24 to 48 hours in strong brine 
and then thoroughly scald them out. Even 
this method sometimes fails to accomplish the 
work. A capital way to prevent woody taste, 
is to line the j^ackage with parchment paper, 
Avhich not only prevents the butter from tak- 
ing on a woody flavor, but also prevents soak- 
age and excludes the air. This parchment 
paper may now be had of all dairy implement 
dealers, in sheets and circles of any size. It 
costs about thirty cents a pound, and a pound 
is sufficient to pack several hundred pounds 
of butter. 

There is still quite a trade in print butter, 
and when nicely packed in one or two-pound 
prints and of good quality it sells quickly, on 
account of its convenient shape for family 
use. For print butter there has been invented 
a machine which stamps out one-half and one- 
pound blocks very quickly and quite artisti- 
cally. AYhen butter is shij^ped in this form 
it should be first carefully wrap^oed in cloth 
or parchment paper and packed in boxes in 
crates. Each box should contain but one 
block of butter, as piling one block upon 
another would be likely to press out the deli- 



PACKING AND SHIPPING 49 

cate figures moulded or stamped on the block. 
The blocks for these patent printing machines 
are sometimes artistically carved, so that the 
blocks of butter show sheaves of wheat, acorns, 
etc., and sometimes with the maker's initi.;ls 
or monogram. For home use the old fash- 
ioned round mould holding from a quarter of 




I X L BUTTER PRINTER. 



a pound to two pounds is still extensively 
used, and when properly soaked in cold water 
before moulding, makes a very nice print of 
butter. These patent printers and moulds 
save much time and are a great convenience 
over the old way of forming the butter into 
rolls. 



50 



.4 B C BUTTER-MAKING. 



Ill packing it is always better to pack each 
churning in a separate tub or box, as the tub 
that contains different churnings will not be 
of uniform solidity or color throughout, and 




ONE POUND BUTTER MOULD. 

will therefore not sell for as much as a tub 
perfectly uniform. 

Eemember to soak the covers of the pack- 
ages, and before fastening them on sprinkle 
salt to a depth of a quarter of an inch over 



PACKING AND SHIPPING. 51 

the top of the butter cloth or paper. Never 
leave the cover off the packages for any 
length of time, for the reason that it will not 
only cause the top of the butter to become 
discolored, but it will also admit the air and 
spoil the top of the butter for several inches. 
The moment you have packed your butter 
get it into a cool place — the cooler the better 
— and thereafter keep it as cool as possible, 
until you have disposed of it. 



THERMOMETERS IN THE 
DAIRY. 



pHEDERIO SUMNER says "There is no 
1^ more use in trying to run a dairy with- 
out a good tested thermometer than there 
would be to attempt sailing a vessel 
without a rudder/' and I heartily 
agree with him. A good thermome- 
ter can be purchased for from fifty 
cents to a dollar, and at these prices 
is certainly within the reach of 
every dairyman. Too much depends 
upon the temperature of the water 
in which we cool our milk, the room 
we ripen our cream in, do our churn- 
ing in, and the temperature of the 
milk, cream, and the butter itself, 
to attempt any guess work. Our 
grandmothers used thumb and finger 
to ascertain the temperature of milk 
and cream, but in these days of fifty 
cents, seventy -five cents, and a dol- 
lar a pound butter we find " thumb- 
rule " will not work. An illustration 



THERMOMETERS IN THE DAIRY. 



53 



of a thermometer made expressly for dairy 
use, is given ; tliey are made of glass and float 
upright in the milk or cream. The churning 
and cheese points are marked for the conven- 
ience of new beginners ; they retail at about 
fifty cents, and can be purchased from any 
dealer in dairy goods. 




MAXIMS 

For ABC Butter Makers. 



TEST your cows. 
Never fill the churn over half full. 

Never touch the butter with your hands. 

Cream rises best in a falling temperature. 

Never churn fresh unripened cream with 
ripened cream. 

After cream becomes sour, the more ripen- 
ing the more it depreciates. 

The best time for churning is just before 
the acidity becomes apparent. 

Never let your butter get warm ; when once 
warmed through it will lose its flavor. 

Excessive working makes crumbly butter, 
spoils the grain and injures the flavor. 

Never mix night's with morning's milk, as 
the warmth of the new and the coldness of 
the old, hastens change and decomposition. 

All kinds of disagreeable odors are easily 
absorbed by salt. Keep it, therefore, in a 
clean, dry place, in linen sacks, if it is to be 
used for butter making. 

The best butter has the least competition 
to contend against, while the worst dairy pro- 



MAXIMS. 55 

ducts have the most. The bolter anything 
is, the more rare is it and the greater its 
value. 

A butter maker that uses his fingers instead 
of a thermometer, to find out the temperature 
of milk or cream will never make a success. 

Cleanliness should be the Alpha and Omega 
of butter making. Absolute cleanliness as 
regards person, stable, utensils and package. 

Faults — The quickest way to find out the 
faulty points in your butter, is to send a sam- 
ple of it to some reliable butter buyer aud ask 
him to score it. 

The difference between the dairyman who 
makes $50.00 a year, per cow, and one who 
makes $30.00, is that the first works intelli- 
gently, the second mechanically. 

Details — The price of success in butter 
making, as in all other classes of business, is 
strict attention to the little details ; it's the 
sum of all these little things that determines 
whether your butter is to be sold for ten cents 
a pound or as a high priced luxury. 

The disadvantages of the system of setting 
milk in shallow pans or crocks, for raising 
cream, are that a long period elapses before 
the skimming is completed, too much space 
is required, and in Summer the milk becomes 
sour before the whole of the cream is raised. 



56 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 

Labor saving appliances are intended, as 
the name implies, to save lalior, bat they do 
not render care, thought and diligence the 
less necessary. To understand the principles 
that underlie the business of butter making, 
is as imperative as to use the most improved 
utensils. 

By keeping a strict account only, can you 
find out the extent of your success or failure. 
If the balance is on the right side, you will 
know whether and how much it can be in- 
creased ; if it is on the Avrong side, you will 
be more strongly convinced of the necessity 
for improvement. 

If you keep your cows in a healthy condi- 
tion, milk regularly ; set the milk in air tight 
cans with good cold water (either ice^ or 
spring) ; skim every twenty-four hours ; ripen 
the cream properly ; churn in a barrel churn 
or some other good churn On the same prin- 
ciple ; wash the butter well while still in the 
churn in granular state ; you will never be 
troubled with white specks in your butter. 



HOW TO MAKE GOOD 
BUTTER. 

— BY N. BIGALOAV, STOWE, VERMONT. — 



IT is necessary to have good cows to start 
with, and if good butter is the object sought 
I prefer good Jerseys. The next thing is good 
feed. Grass that is fresh and tender is best 
of all. This does not last very long up here 
in Vermont. My cows have a feed of green 
corn fodder, at night, and a small feed of 
grain, in the morning. I prefer to mix dif- 
ferent kinds of grain together. It must be 
all sound and good. Make the cows comfort- 
able and contented. Kind treatment is in- 
dispensable, and the more regularity in caring 
for them the better. 

We try to keep the milk entirely clean. If 
it is necessary we wash the cows' bags, before 
milking. The milk is strained into large, 
open pans, and as soon as tlie animal heat is 
out of it, the pans are covered over with thin 
cotton cloth. The covers are made by sewing 
the edges of the cloth to some strips of bass- 
wood, about three-fourths of an inch square 



58 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 

and a little longer than the pans. They cost 
but a trifle, and after using them ten years 
we would hardly make butter without them. 
The butter is not quite so yellow, at first, for 
raising the cream under the covers, but will 
be after it has stood a few hours. 

When we first tried our large pans, we used 
to run water around them, but the coolers 
have got to leaking, and we do not think it 
would pay to get new ones. 

Our rule is to skim the milk soon after 
it sours, as the cream will come off easily. 
We keep the cream in a cellar, when it is 
necessary, but prefer to keep it in the milk 
room, when it is not too warm. Our dairy is 
small, and we have churned only twice a 
week, this year. We use the Stoddard churn, 
and would not use a float cliurn. I have 
never seen the acme churn yet, and hardly 
think it has been made. 58 degrees is the 
right temperature at which to churn the 
cream, in warm weather : 62 in cold, and 60 
in spring and fall. We put in from three to 
six quarts of water to thin the cream, and if 
the cream is too warm we use cold water (we 
have a cold spring), and in extreme warm 
weather use a little ice. If the cream is too 
cold we warm the water sometimes up to 120 
degrees. If that will not answer, the cream 



HOW TO MAKE GOOD BUTTER. 59 

must be warmed beforehand. The butter- 
milk is drawn off as soon as it can be done, 
and leave most of the butter in the churn. 
Any butter that runs out is put back with a 
skimmer. We use cold water enough to keep 
the butter in the grain, and wash it until the 
water runs clear. I suppose brine would be 
better, but have not used it much. After the 
butter has drained, the salt is strained in with 
a paddle ; and then it is taken out with the 
paddle and pressed into the butter bowl. We 
use about an ounce of salt to a pound, but 
some of it works out. After it has stood a 
few hours, it is worked with a lever in an old 
fashioned butter worker, just enough to get 
the salt in evenly, and then it is ready to 
print. We always try to injure the grain as 
little as possible. 

Our printer holds four pounds, and makes 
eight half pound prints. The prin'>s are put 
up in four pound boxes, and cut apart with 
wooden blades. The boxes are made here in 
Stowe, and are washed and scalded with boil- 
ing water, sprinkled with salt. 

Our milk house is shaded on the eastern 
side by a willow tree, and on the southern by 
another building, and we can cool it to some 
extent with currents of air. But if we should 
admit currents of air, without the covers over 



60 .ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 

the pans, there would be white specks in the 
butter. 

AVe use butter color when it is necessry to 
color the butter, but think it better to color 
it too little than too much. 

I am in the habit of mixing a small quan- 
tity of cotton seed meal with the grain for 
the cows, and think I get a little more milk 
from that than anything else. Linseed meal 
is very high here, and I have never used it. 

Last, but not least, the cows must have 
pure air to breathe, and the milk, cream and 
butter must be kept in a good atmosphere. 

I am fully convinced that any farmer that 
makes a prime article of butter, of uniform 
quality, has an excellent opportunity to use 
common sense and sound judgment. 

Consumers of such butter, as I have des- 
cribed, need not have any fear that they are 
eating anything that is, or ever was, filthy or 
unwholesome. 



THE DAIRYMAN'S 
LIBRARY. 



Creaming Milk by Centrifugal Force . . $ 50 

Hazard's Butter and Butter Making. . . 25 

Curtis' Hints on Dairying 50 

Willard's Practical Dairy Husbandry . . 3 00 

Willard's Practical Butter Book 1 25 

ABC Butter Making, by Burch 30 

Harris' Cheese and Butter Maker's 

Hand Book 1 50 

The Jersey, Alderney and Guernsey 

Cow 1 75 

Feeding Animals. Stewart 2 00 

Dadd's American Cattle Doctor 1 75 

Guenon's Treatise on Milch Cows 1 25 

Quincy on Soiling of Cattle 1 50 

Keeping One Cow 125 

Jennings' Cattle and their Diseases ... 2 00 

Barn Plans and Out Buildings 1 75 

Any one of the above books will be sent 
post-paid on receipt of price. 

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^, DEC 84 

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